December 10, 2010 02:50 AM UTC

Polis: Legalize Marijuana

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• by: Phoenix Rising

In a debate on the merits of HR1540, a resolution declaring that growing Marijuana on Federal lands is an “unacceptable threat to law enforcement and to the public,” our own Rep. Jared Polis spoke up (h/t Raw Story):

“I have no doubt that marijuana plantations, as the resolution states, pose a threat to the environmental health of Federal lands, that drug traffickers spray unregulated chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers, but I submit that the best way to address that is to incorporate this into a meaningful and enforceable agricultural policy for the country with regard to the regulatory structure for the production of marijuana,” Rep. Jared Polis said.

“As long as [marijuana] remains illegal and as long as there is a market demand, the production will be driven underground,” he continued. “No matter how much we throw at enforcement, it will continue to be a threat not only to our Federal lands, but to our border security and to our safety within our country.”

I’d like to extend a hearty thanks to Rep. Polis for pointing out to some apparently single-track thinkers what we knew in 1933 when we repealed Prohibition: making something illegal won’t remove the demand for an item, it will just drive it underground where it will fuel the profits of criminal enterprises.

Also quoted in the article, former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders:

I think we consume far more dangerous drugs that are legal: cigarette smoking, nicotine and alcohol […]  I feel they cause much more devastating effects physically. We need to lift the prohibition on marijuana.

As Colorado Pols pointed out the other day, Colorado is making millions on just the quasi-legalization of pot in this state, while moving growth of the weed away from the control of the drug cartels.  Time to finish the job rather then throwing more money down the rabbit hole of enforcement and punishment.